This despite a plea by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees for Tanzania to respect international conventions on the rights of those seeking shelter.

The Burundians fled into Uganda in 2015 because of violence following President Pierre Nkurunziza contesting an unconstitutional third term in office.

Tanzania’s Home Affairs Minister Kangi Lugola says there is now peace in Burundi.

He’s brought his Burundia counterpart Pascal Barandagiye to warn the refugees in the camps in southwest Tanzania to come home.

Tanzania maintains the UNHCR is not meeting the agreement reached last year to return 2000 refugees a month to Burundi    

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The United States is among countries saying they don’t expect the poll to produce a fair result.

President Pierre Nkurunziza’s hardly trying to convince his naysayers that the referendum will be above board.

He’s thrown out the BBC, Voice of America and other international media to prevent them from covering it.

Anyone calling for a  voter boycott is jailed and those who have not registered also face punishment.

Nkurunziza’s no stranger to applying heavy-handed measures to stay in power.

Hundreds of people have died protesting the unconstitutional  third term he took in 2015, and nearly half-a-million Burundians have fled the country to escape the violence.

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Civil servants will sacrifice a tenth of their salaries to finance the poll where President Pierre Nkurunziza plans to run for a fourth term.

It was President Pierre Nkurunziza’s determination  in 2015 to run for and win an upconstitutional third term in office that  got Burundi into trouble.

Political violence since then has left more than 700 people dead and 400 000 displaced.

Foreign aid, which was previously used to finance elections,  has dried up as donor nations deplore Nkurunziza’s power grab.

So now private citizens are being asked to  make direct contributions and civil servants will be tithed to pay for re-electing the president who refuses to stand down

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The group says the ICC decision gives victims hope that those responsible for grave crimes over the past two years could be held to account,

The panel of three ICC judges will investigate how President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision two years ago to run for an unconstitutional third term ignited protests in Burundi that were suppressed by his security service and the youth league of his ruling party known as the Imbonerakure.

It will look at the allegedly unchecked abuses by these groups including rape, torture and executions.

Last month Burundi became the first country officially to withdraw from the ICC.

The court still has jurisdiction over crimes committed during the 13 years that it was a member.

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They say there’s been a new intensification of repression and crimes against opponents of President Pierre Nkurunziza.

ends intro

The International Federation For Human Rights and the Burundian Human Rights League have issued a 200-page report listing what they call dramatic actions by the Burundian government.

These include the expulsion of African Union and United Nations human rights experts from Burundi;

The denunciation by the Burundian government of a UN human rights report critical of actions in Bujumbura;

Burundi’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court; and

The suspension of five human rights organizations in Burundi.

The alarm bells started ringing, say the watchdogs, when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to take an unconstitutional third term at the helm.

The post Human rights groups call for military force to stop civil war in Burundi appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

They warn of possible crimes against humanity and the looming risk of genocide.

Three experts commissioned by the UN human rights office recommend the establishment of a commission of inquiry after examining abuses over 14 months until the end of  June.

Violence soared after President Pierre Nkurunziza contested and won an unconstitutional  third term in office.

The report says gross human rights violations have and are taking place, committed primarily by state agents and those linked to them.

The experts say impunity is pervasive.

They can’t exclude that some instances of these gross human rights violations amount to crimes against humanity.

They warn that given the country’s history, the danger of the crime of genocide also looms large.

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A security advisor to the country’s  vice-president has been shot dead while dropping off his daughter at school in the capital Bujumbura.

ends intro

No group’s claimed responsibility for the attack on  General Athanase Kararuza and his wife that killed them instantly.

More than 400 people have been killed in violence that flared after  President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would run for an unconstitutional  third term a year ago.

Many of the victims have been  high-ranking army officers.

Amnesty International accuses security forces of killing opponents and dumping them in mass graves.

The International Criminal court is undertaking a preliminary investigation into the violence in Burundi.

The post Top security advisor and wife killed by Burundi attackers appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Rwandans particularly say the process could lead to their community being victimized.

ends intro

In the next two months, all non-Burundians in that troubled country have to report to border police offices.

President Pierre Nkurunziza has accused Rwanda of training rebels joining protests against him.

Burundi’s Public Security MinisterAlain-Guillaume Bunyoni insists the registration’s  aimed at granting foreigners a biometric ID card.

Thousands of Rwandans who lived in Burundi have fled the country since the start of the crisis sparked by Nkurunziza taking an unconstitutional third term in office.

More than 400 people have died in violence that’s caused a quarter of million Burundians to seek shelter in neighboring countries.

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It’s now up to President Pierre Nkurunziza to approve this.

President Pierre Nkurunziza hasn’t confirmed his attendance at the African Union summit in Sandton next weekend.

Last time he left home, an abortive coup was mounted against him.

He missed a subsequent summit discussing the crisis in Burundi caused by his determination unconstitutionally to extend his term in power.

He did however accede to his neighbours urging him to delay elections.

Briefing reporters ahead of the AU summit, South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana Mashebane would not urge Nkurunziza to abide by his country’s constitution and avoid contesting the upcoming election.

The post Burundi’s electoral commission suggests new date for elections appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

They’ve also called for an end to the violence caused by the president’s determination to run for an unconstitutional third term.

President Jacob Zuma was at yesterday’s summit Dar es Salaam.

His Burundian counterpart was not.

The South African leader was there in his capacity as the mediator that help end Burundi’s civil war and effectively put Nkurunziza in power in 2005.

The Burundian president gave the gathering a miss because when he attended one last month, his return home was delayed by an abortive coup.

The East African leaders yesterday said much the same thing as they did when last they met to consider the crisis in Burundi

That is the country is not at all prepared for elections and the poll should be delayed by at least six weeks,.

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